Front Office Box

Every sale involves a process – identifying a need, justifying the cost, selecting a vendor, agreeing terms for the contract, ensuring delivery occurred and paying the price.

This fundamental applies whether we’re buying coffee from a street vendor or a multi billion $ outsource. As sales guys we need to understand our prospect’s plan for process.

If the prospect can’t explain his process, the sale most likely won’t happen.  Lack of process may be an opportunity, as well as the obvious threat.  Maybe we can suggest a process, guiding the scope and selection.  We’ll add value through consulting on how to buy the right thing, the right way.

Where there’s a defined process, monitoring the defined milestones is a great way of spotting risks as they come up.  As new risks appear we can change our thinking to accommodate them.

Understanding the process also helps us identify other influences on the sale and engage them in the selection and funding decisions.

These points won’t be new to the trained sales professional, but there’s one major benefit to applying a buy/sell process which might be – it takes away the need for any confrontation during the “Close”.

At the beginning of the discussion, when it’s easier to ask the hard questions, we can “Close” the deal without the prospect noticing.

Agreeing the process with the prospect, we can build “negotiate terms” and “sign contract” into the plan as milestones.

Working our way through the process we naturally move through the agreed steps and there’s no need to ask for the order – it’s a pre-agreed step.

With a buy/sell process we can effectively win the deal during the first call – provided we deliver on the process, of course.

Check out these short articles to find out more about sales qualification, and how to do it.

Improving the Bottom Line

Sales Qualification Checklist

The Pro’s Secret

Understand the Competition

Understand the Threats

Five Questions About Money

Recruit a Coach

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February 18th, 2009 - Posted in sales qualification  |  Add a Comment